Join A 2016 Whole9 Challenge!

[kirkor]

OK, I'm planning on my phone during a seminar

HAH! Just saw this --- I meant to type "playing" not "planning" but I guess my phone knew what I *should* have been doing!

[cottagequeen]

Got my bedroom set up during the last challenge. This time I am working on the get in the bed at a decent hour. Sleeping thru the night has returned and I like it!

[WholeChristina]

Funny enough ... with all this talk of sleep ... I had a horrible night tossing and turning.  I'm already dreaming of getting back into bed tonight.  Thank God this doesn't happen often - I love my sleep!

 

I've heard left-side sleeping helps with blood flow in the abdomen.  Don't know if that's true, but now I'm interested to know (and am embarrassed I don't know since I work with vascular surgeons).  I'll ask around at work.

 

Had my second (and final) private yoga instruction.  I'm going to give Flow a try (instead of Yin - not for me!).  She also had me try Tabata style HIIT - 20 seconds hard, 10 seconds rest for 4 minute sets.  Love Tabata.  You can download music with count in it and incorporate with any style workout (cardio, abs, arms, etc).  Fun but oh so hard!!!

[jmcbn]

I got my bedroom all sorted last time too, along with the habit of limiting liquids after 7:30pm, taking magnesium, dimming lights downstairs etc etc etc.

I have a fairly rigid bed time routine in that my laptop gets shut down before my kids go to bed & we have a good chat before their bed time & then I'll study for a little. My problem is that I use the sleep cycle app on my phone and once I'm done reading I have a habit of scrolling through social media before I hit the 'start' button on the sleep cycle.

My aim this month is to quit this habit completely. It's day 9 here and I've had around 50% success so far...... 

[Melimuse]

> It seems there are folks sticking with this thread

Oh don't you worry about that! This thread might not be 300 pages long on 12/31/16, but there *will* be posts!

>Also, I have been making great progress with my arthritis, working with a massage therapist who works into deep tissue with techniques like fascia stretching.

Any tips? I do stuff with a lacrosse ball and a foam roller, but I'd be interested in upping my game.

LOL Cottagequeen in it to the end, eh?  I hope we'll be starting afresh next year as I really dig the January Whole 30 as a yearly check-in with myself. 

 

In regard to the stretching.  I worked with foam roller, lacrosse ball, and lots of PT exercises prescribed by a great doctor.  However, I was still in pain!  We got up to an hour of daily things I had to do and it was not sustainable for me.  I would feel better if I could do all of that stuff every day, but.....son, home, job, dog, life.  Anyway, my brilliant PT Doctor went out on his own to establish a new practice and brought in a partner who does dry needling.  If you're interested in that technique I will provide a link.  That technique was the pain intervention I needed to get moving again, because it stopped me from having constant muscle spasms, which hurts pretty badly.  From that point, I started getting more mobile but hit a plateau.  It became obvious that I had a lot of scar tissue and adhesion spots that no amount of moving or rolling were going to address.  I asked for a referral to a sports massage therapist and found a new practice in the same facility where I could get this type of massage.  The FST (fascia stretching therapy) is not a pleasant, soothing, pleasurable experience.  It's an intervention experience performed by a specialist who works deep into your tendons and fascia layer to get them moving again, break up the scar tissue, and stretch.  This therapy has me able to move my legs and back in ways that I have not been able to for years.  The hour of painful work is followed by an ability to up my game.  I can't wait for the vertigo to go away so I can get back to my beloved yoga, but meanwhile, ain't it great!

 

The FST and dry needling are both coming out of cutting-edge physical therapy technology that is being employed to help professional athletes recover from injury.  The applicability to the wider public is awesome.  Good luck!

 

M

[Melimuse]

Kirkor, not CottageQueen!  sorry

[jent103]

Anybody have a good source for blackout curtains or something along those lines? With it getting lighter earlier, I've been waking up before my 7am alarm. The more natural solution would probably be to bump my bedtime back so I can get 8 hours in before the sun comes all the way up, but... small changes.

 

Sleep month has so far been more of a struggle even than I anticipated, especially the screens. There are all kinds of reasons I could give you for it, but really I need to develop some mental toughness and stick to my rules! Every day is a new opportunity, I guess.

[cottagequeen]

I have a layered effect on my Windows. Blinds, sheers, then curtains. Mine are blackout. Got them at Menards. Last winter. Sold out fast. I am sure they have them at Wal-Mart.

[WholeChristina]

Just scheduled my first yoga class (in a group) for Monday.  Kind of nervous, but excited too.  Forcing myself outside my box ... thanks in part to keeping up with this thread. Really enjoying the Tabata technique to encourage me to push myself (especially with strength training).  Want this year to be a balanced body focus.

 

On the subject of sleep ... losing that hour tonight.  I think I'm one of the few people who enjoy "fall back" more than "spring ahead" ... I don't mind (and actually like) the dark hours.  We live very close to time change so we have lots of light already later in evening.  I'm an early bed-goer, so it's often light when I go to bed.  My room isn't very dark so I burry my eyes in my pillow    My son uses black out curtains in his apartment and likes them (think we got them at Walmart).

[kirkor]

I'm a bachelor so I just have a dark sheet hanging in front of my blinds as my blackout curtain

 

And thanks for the reminder about daylight saving time!

[Marjanill]

I think I will join in late. Call me a major procrastinator! Actually I just saw it for the first time. I am on day 19 of my first whole30. I see that March is Sleep month. That's a good place to start (easy) because going to sleep has never been a problem for me since my first child was born 39 years ago. But even being a good sleeper, I do find that I'm sleeping even better doing my whole 30; as is my husband who DOES have a lot of trouble STAYING asleep. A lot of that is stomach related for him, though that seems to be improving as he is being carried along on MY whole30. I will have to share some of the information here with him.

[WholeChristina]

Welcome Marjanill!!  Sounds like your Whole30 is going well   (and hubby's by proxy!)

 

I tried my yoga class yesterday and really, really enjoyed it.  Why was I so nervous???  It's never as bad as my mind makes it out to be.  I bought a one month special for new students ... unlimited classes.  Shooting for 2 classes per week.  I feel good about working through this goal (it was a long time coming!).

 

Adding yoga has changed my workout routine (already!!).  I need to watch my rest days as I tend to get overuse problems so I have to mix things up.  It's actually kind of fun.  I haven't changed things in quite a while and it's added a spark back to working out.

[LucieB]

Halfway through March, how's your sleep?

 

I have been trying a few things. I downloaded a sleep analysis app but will quit using it. I think it's akin to counting calories! Every morning I'd get this graph showing time in and out of deep sleep that led to an efficiency number, but they didn't really correlate with how I felt upon waking or later in the day. So I'll be ditching the app and going by feel. 

 

I have blackout curtains but the effect is more of a brown out. The room is dark but not like a cave. A few nights ago I tried covering my eyes with a bandana for  a total blackout (looked as funny as it sounds!). I always thought those eye-cover things would annoy me, but I didn't even notice it. I liked it, might invest in a real one. 

 

As for getting up to pee, it's sometimes 3-4 times a night! I stopped drinking a majority of my water at 6pm but didn't fix much. I'm wondering if it's the accumulation of veggies I eat at dinner? Usually a steamed zucchini in that pile, lotta water there. So haven't fixed that yet. Maybe I'll start logging time and volumes (input, I mean!), maybe I'm drinking more than I realize. 

 

And I've imposed a strict no-phone after 9pm rule. Also a no-phone until I've been awake 30 mins so I wouldn't wake up to check things. Hard at first, but easier now. 

 

Share updates!

[cottagequeen]

Sleep has been pretty good so far. my goal of getting to bed earlier has been reached about 90%. Definitely getting some rem sleep as I have been having some really weird dreams. Going to put a notebook and pen by my bed to write them down. Not sure if it will help much, but should be some entertaining reading down the road!

[kirkor]

>I stopped drinking a majority of my water at 6pm but didn't fix much. I'm wondering if it's the accumulation of veggies I eat at dinner?

 

I can't imagine veggies having any measurable effect.

 

I think it's possible we get 'used to' getting up to pee .. the bladder does stretch, so I think we can acclimate to how much of that stretch reflex we respond to. I'm experimenting with this myself ,,, mainly on weekends when I can sleep in a bit while ignoring the urge to get p to use the restroom

[jmcbn]

Well, since my last post I've forgone the pre-sleep social media scroll every night bar one when I got a notification of a message *just* as I was about to hit 'start' on my sleep cycle... I've since turned off notifications on my phone via the Do Not Disturb feature from 10pm - 7pm and I'm currently at around a 67% success rate for the month, with half of the month still to go. I'm getting there!!

Re: the getting up to use the bathroom thing during the night - this is something I suffered with for a very long time pre Whole30. I was getting up 3 maybe 4 times each night & it was really effecting my sleep quality. By doing the whole black out thing in my room, and cutting back on liquids in the evenings & generally improving my sleep hygiene I was able to get down to wakening just the once a night - and occasionally not at all - a HUGE improvement, and a huge impact on sleep quality allowing me to get in more REMs. Stick with the no liquids thing - I think that really did help, and just going to bed with the positive mind set that I WASN'T going to get up all through the night. Just like with food habits it's all about building new neural pathways...

And on that note I'm off to bed!

Sleep well people.......................

[jent103]

jmcbn - that Do Not Disturb feature is a thing of beauty!

 

I'm not going to lie: the first half of March, the focus on sleep was laughable for me. I could give you all the reasons, and there were reasons, but it boils down to not getting to bed early enough for various reasons. I woke up Monday morning, facing a day of a 7am appointment at the car place for an oil change followed by six hours of driving round trip for a funeral, and my first thought actually was "I have GOT to take better care of myself." I'm exhausted.

 

Since then it's been better. I asked a friend for accountability (she's struggled with sleep as well, though in different ways) and have turned off the screens before 10:30 every night (believe it or not, this is progress). Right now, my goal for the phone and computer is 10pm, and that's only if I have to work (I'm doing a nights-and-weekends side project at the moment); if I'm not actively working, 9pm, and even if I am working, no non-work surfing after then. I've been motivating myself to get to bed by having a fiction book I only read before bed. Baby steps, I guess.

[WholeChristina]

I had a tiring week.  

 

Some long days at work and the addition of yoga classes to my workout schedule ... left me pooped out!  I let myself sleep with no alarm today and slept for almost 11 hours.  Every once in awhile I need a marathon sleep.  I feel so much better today.  Best recovery for my tired muscles is usually a long sleep.

 

I'm really hooked on yoga (and still trying to get most of intro month special!!).  Heading to a tone classes this afternoon.  I'm surprised how much I enjoy the group classes.  I usually prefer to workout alone, but this seems to be an exception. 

 

Starting to think about April's "stress" topic and what goal I want to set ... kind of coming up blank.  I look forward to hearing what you guys are planning for April .. I need some inspiration!

 

On the eating front, it's been some hits and misses.  Sugar found it's way back in March, so I'm cleaning it up AGAIN!!  I took a bit of a break from cooking too.  Ate freezer stock pile and lots from Whole Foods prepared section.  I'm ready to get back to cooking.  Have Barbacoa (this that spelled correctly??) in crock pot now.  When I have meals I look forward to eating, I don't look for a sugar hit as much ... so time to get back in the game.

[kirkor]

Have Barbacoa (this that spelled correctly??) in crock pot now. 

 

Nice! I made this version last week (except I didn't have adobo chipotles so I just used smoked paprika + cayenne because that was the closest sub I could fine on google) and MANOHMAN it was so good that it didn't go nearly as far as I'd've liked ... I ate so much!

[jent103]

WholeChristina - I used to be the same way with exercising solo, but now really love group yoga classes. At some studios I've been to, it's still very much an individual experience (quiet before/after class, everyone on their own mat), but at the studio I've been going to the last year or so, it's very community-oriented - we do partner work in class pretty often and people are much more chatty. At first I was a little uncomfortable with it, but I actually really love it now (and I am a certified introvert!).

 

I've been doing yoga for several years and still can't do things like headstands, but it doesn't matter much to me - it works my body *and* gets me out of my head, which is incredibly valuable for me!

[jent103]

Sleep is going a little better for me this week. I'm working on a couple of freelance projects, and will be for the next week or two, so turning off the screens at night will be a challenge. And a deadline tomorrow meant that last night I only got 7 hours instead of the 8 I've been shooting for. But it's better than it has been at least!

[bhenningsen]

For  the stress challenge I have some suggestions from our work based coaching program.

 

1. Make yourself a list of the blessings in your life and make it a habit to read through them 3 times a day. For me that puts stressful items throughout the day into perspective. Important is the location of your list or lists. I have one taped to the cooler I take to work every day and one hanging on the fridge

2. Set yourself alarms and reminders on your phone to get up and move around every couple of hours if you have a desk job.

3. Whenever possible, spend a couple of minutes breathing deeply and mindfully.

3. Take 5 to 10 minutes of your lunch break to meditate or just take a little walk. Same for meditation before bedtime.

 

These are simple things to do and you can easily set yourself goals for the number of times you do this/consistency.

[jmcbn]

It's been a full week since I last posted and I HAVE NOT FALTERED with the no social media scrolling before bed!!   

I have to say the result is that I am feeling so much more at peace with myself and with my decisions than I have in a looooooooong long time. I feel rested & mellow - even though work has been a pretty stressful place for me of late. 

It's all good!

[cottagequeen]

Way to go jmcbn! I have definitely decreased my social media time, since the computer crashed. Unfortunately, I've traded off for reading books on mom's old kindle fire. I really need to suck it up and deregister it. One thing I didn't want to do was spend all my time with my nose stuck in a book. Empty nest syndrome stinks. You'd think I'd be acclimated after 10 years.  A work in progress, that's what it is. I can do this. One step at a time, one hour at a time, one day at a time.

[LucieB]

About a week left in March and I'm still up repeatedly at night to pee. Still 1-2 times a night! I started tracking water consumption.

 

Water: 32oz before 8am, another 32oz by noon, then a third 20oz water bottle finished before I leave work at 5pm.

Then add in kombucha, probably 8oz in the morning, 8oz at work, and 8-12 ounces when I get home.

In mid March I stopped the 2-4 cups of water after work. It helped reduce me from waking 2-3 times a night. 

Then another 8-10 oz of water for Natural Calm before bed.

 

So...32+32+20+8+8+8=over 100 ounces of water a day. Huh, thought when I added that up it would be more. Maybe if I quit adding yummy ACV to my water I'd like it less    Then add in the water from my veggie piles at meals. 

 

However I'm sleeping good for 7.5-8hrs a night, I feel rested, and fall asleep within minutes of hitting the pillow. I'm trying to find improvement in the last 90%, so yeah it will be harder.

 

STRESS is next in April, and I like bhenningsen's suggestions. I don't have specific goals for April yet, so I'm open to ideas and would like to hear what others are thinking.